A parliamentary hopeful of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Bekwai constituency in the Ashanti Region, Ralph Poku-Adusei has secured the distribution of 5,000 improved clean cooking stoves to his constituents in the Bekwai district to mark his 41st birthday.
The private legal practitioner and indigene of the Bekwai says the gesture forms part of his efforts to help reduce Charcoal consumption in Bekwai and in Ghana as a whole.
This comes after statistics from the Ghana Energy Commission indicates that over 75 percent of Ghanaians rely on Charcoal/Firewood as their primary source of cooking fuel. Accra and Kumasi, which are the most populated urban centers in Ghana, account for 57 percent of all charcoal consumed in the country.
Out of the 5,000 units, 1,000 will be given to NPP delegates in Bekwai constituency [who are about 986] under Lawyer Ralph Poku-Adusei’s flagship program known as the “Delegates Welfare Initiative (DWI)”.
Ralph Poku Adusei, who is highly tipped to win the primary is expected to pick his forms as soon as the nominations open for the Bekwai constituency which currently has Joseph Osei Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament as the sitting MP.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Council of the NPP have approved the timelines for holding presidential and parliamentary primaries of the Party for the 2024 general elections.
A statement released on April 3, 2023 and signed by the party’s General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong had announced.
According to the statement, the party will open nominations for its presidential primaries on 26th May 2023 and close same on 24th June 2023.
In the event that there are more than 5 applicants, the party will hold a “Special Electoral College Elections” (Super Delegates Conference) on August 26, 2023.
The National Congress to elect a flagbearer will afterward be held on November 4, 2023.
In the same release, the NPP also indicated that nominations for parliamentary primaries in orphan constituencies will open on June 16, 2023 and close on July 14, 2023. The elections will subsequently be held from Tuesday August 1 to Saturday December 2, 2023.
On constituencies where the party has sitting members of Parliament, the NPP says it will open nominations on Wednesday December 20, 2023 and close same on Thursday January 4, 2024. The elections will then be held on Saturday 24th February 2024.
The National Council of the NPP as part of measures to ensure that it brings some sanity to the party’s parliamentary primaries, has barred National, Regional, and Constituency Party Executives as well as all MMDCEs from contesting in Constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament.
By Vincent Kubi